「慎其獨」以「知天」：先秦儒學的慎獨觀念與禮學論述

先秦儒學文本屢見「君子慎其獨也」的話語，其中見於《禮記．大學》、《禮記．中庸》、《禮記．禮器》、《荀子．不苟》，以及新近出土的簡帛〈五行〉，此話語顯然有一語境，主要針對「君子」發話，有告誡與教誨的意義，表述君子應當有固結於倫理之志，甚至於獨處時亦應戒慎，而不能有所鬆懈，蓋「天」之生人，又有所「命」於人，祂總會無時無刻地觀察君子所言所行，此「命」不僅是倫理的，還是政治的，而君子正是以「知天」的政治智慧與理想來回應天命。「知天」，僅見於《禮記．中庸》、《孟子．盡心上》、《荀子．天論》等先秦儒學文本中，它顯現儒者對其存在意義之體認，也指向儒者對於倫理的追求與平治天下的政治理想。總之，筆者認為「君子慎其獨也」的話語背後所潛藏的深層意義不僅可以溯源到先秦儒者所共許的價值本源——「天」，同時也向我們展現了孔子與後來儒者所努力不懈的方向。本研究對於先秦儒學慎獨觀念的討論，係從先秦思想史的角度考察，因此有意擱置漢唐、宋明以後的詮釋架構，而將「慎其獨」視為文化語句，蓋此觀念並非儒者首創，而早見於《詩》、《書》，故筆者擬從殷、周以來的歷史沿革與文化傳統之脈絡來考察其意涵，藉此上溯慎獨觀念的文化源頭；另外，筆者也會考察先秦儒學六種慎獨文本之內容脈絡，嘗試透過對經文主旨之把握，以及儒者對「慎其獨」概念的理解與使用中作一分析，希冀從雙方面釐清先秦儒學的慎獨觀念，以區別於漢唐經學系統與宋明理學興起以來的詮釋框架。本文將指出：「故君子慎其獨」（慎獨觀念）是儒學史上一個聚訟紛紜的議題，從漢代鄭玄的《禮記．大學注》以來，「慎其獨」始被縮稱為「慎獨」，在宋明又被視為一哲學語詞，往後再歷經多種詮釋框架之演變與研究向度之分析。經筆者考察，「慎其獨」作為儒者所使用的教言，它有面對的對象、語境與論述目的，可以追溯到周人的政治傳統與文化思維，它強調天命與鬼神對主體的全方面臨視，表述主體於「知天」之倫理義務與政治行動應當要守持專壹不貳、無所偏離，以至於「慎其獨」的固結心志，而這樣的表現實與儒者的文化知識背景有深不可分的關係。「君子慎其獨也」的話語跟儒者總體的「禮學論述」密切相關。「禮學論述」作為儒者所建構起來的「構成善」，它含攝了傳統性與創造性，一方面指向儒者建立起自我認同與人生方向的基礎，一方面又顯現儒者得以立足於傳統並從中進行嶄新的創造能力，令他們得以因應不同的時空變局，通過言說去重新整理周代傳統價值體系，並進一步去教誨君子、介入政治。為了更清楚說明這種由儒者所建構起來的禮學論述，筆者引述加拿大哲學家查爾斯‧泰勒在其「現代自我認同之形成」的理論中所提出的「構成善」（constitutive goods）概念，指出：六種慎獨文本都是先秦儒者建構起來的「構成善」。「慎其獨」作為周代政治傳統的重要觀念，它本具深刻的宗教意涵，孔子以後的儒者提出「君子慎其獨」這句套語，並將之鑲嵌入其「構成善」中，從而表明仁義之道不僅是儒者自我認同之根源，同時，他們所建立起來「構成善」也因之具有周代倫理價值體系的支撐，從而得以塑造其正當性與權威性，為的就是因應時代變局，解決價值失落與政治失序的時代困境。因是，筆者也指出：「慎其獨」作為「構成善」或禮學論述的關鍵部分，成為先秦儒者對周代傳統文化進行再詮釋的言說形式，蓋「慎其獨」能促使主體覺察「道德根源」，內在遂得以生起固結於道的深層心靈動力與高尚情志，讓儒者一以貫之、專壹不貳地貫徹「知天」的倫理義務與政治使命。總之，從六個文本對「慎其獨」此話語的使用來看，它們反映出共同的文化知識背景，即周代的政治文化傳統，關鍵在於告誡君子體認天命以追求「知天」；唯因著不同世代、不同師承與不同的個體思維，從而形成各自不同的禮學論述。本研究經由對六種先秦儒家慎獨文本的直接梳理，考察「慎其獨」在六種不同儒學文本之中的義涵與表述功能，同時亦希冀從思想史與禮學的研究視角嘗試探究先秦儒學思想的其中一項議題之不同面向。

關鍵字

慎獨觀念；「知天」；先秦儒學；禮學論述；「構成善」

並列摘要

Pre-Qin Confucianist texts, for example, the chapters Daxue, Zhongyong, and Liqi in the Liji, the Bugou in Xunzi, and newly excavated bamboo-and-silk text wuxing, often refer to the aphorism "junzi shenqidu ye," or the need for the junzi to remain cautious even in a life of solitude. The context is primarily a didactic one, demonstrating and instructing how a junzi ought to collect oneself morally even while alone, for the heavens required that man's incarnation must be obligatorily moral and constantly surveilled so that the maintenance of such moral state would be without fail. The fatalistic nature of man's moral state is not merely ethical but political – the junzi responds to his destiny through the political wisdom and idealism embedded in his knowledge of the divine mandate. Knowing the heavens, or zhitian, only appears in Pre-Qin Confucianist texts (Zongyong in the Liji; Jinxin A, Mengzi; Tianlun, Xunzi). It embodies the Confucianists' understanding of the meaning of existence and their ethical and political aspirations for peaceful governance of the world. In sum, this author wishes to suggest that junzi shenqidu ye is a complex notion with connotative layers that can be traced to the specific Pre-Qin Confucianist common value of tian (or heaven), and it guides us towards understanding the later attempts of later Confucianists' endeavors in illustrating the concept. This research exclusively approaches the Pre-Qin history of thought and hence deliberately postpones the interpretative frameworks developed in the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties to provide a better focus on the concept of shendu in Pre-Qin Confucianist discourse. In this design, shenqidu is treated as a culturally significant aphorism not coined by Confucianists per se, for it can be found even in the Shijin and the Shangshu. This author proposes a historical method wherein the historical and cultural traditions associated with this aphorism are first elicited from known literary texts to identify the early beginnings of it. Also, this author surveys six types of literary texts and contexts in the Pre-Qin Confucianist tradition that touches upon the shenqidu concept to analyze the Confucianist interpretations and usages concerning the various canonical themes. Combining these approaches would provide a better opportunity to clarify the shendu concept without having it meshed in later Han and Tang traditions of the Confucianist canons and the hermeneutical frameworks created by the Song and Ming Dynasty Confucianist scholarship. This paper will demonstrate that gu junzi shenqidu (the shendu concept) is a topical issue in Confucianist history with historically divergent argumentations. The Han scholar Zheng Xuan's Annotations of Daxue in the Liji was the first attempt to compress the idea of shenqidu into shendu, of which consequence can be seen in later iterations of similar philosophizing efforts during the Song and the Ming Dynasties, eventually resulting in multiple interpretative frameworks and vectors of inquiry. The research work carried out by this author found that shenqidu as a dictum for Confucianists have a specific target, semantic context, and narrative purpose grounded in the political traditions and cultural notions of the Zhou Dynasty. The concept emphasizes the all-encompassing observation that heavenly destiny and the spiritual realm would project upon the subject. It serves as an expression of the subject's awareness of his moral obligations and political actions that must be taken and that he must maintain course undeviatingly so to achieve shenqidu as a concretized state of mind. Such a performance is deeply entrenched in the Confucianist's epistemological background. It is also found that the aphorism junzi shenqidu ye has close connections to the lixue discourse that Confucianists adopt in general. The lixue discourse is an epistemological construct of the good Confucianists set up, encompassing traditionalism and innovativeness within the fundamentals of self-identity and nurturing in the Confucianist tradition. It serves as a demonstration of the innovative aspect that Confucianists can perform while grounded within traditional boundaries and serves as the didactic force that instructs the junzi and intervenes in politics. This author wishes to better explain the Confucianists' constructive lixue discourse via the lens of the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor, who proposed the concept of "constitutive goods" in his modern self-identity formation theory. He argues that the six shendu texts are all constitutive goods constructed by pre-Qin Confucianists. As a critical concept in Zhou political traditions, the shenqidu idea has a markedly religious connotation. After Confucius, the aphorism junzi shenqidu in Confucianist parlance is laced into the constitutive goods as a form of statement recognizing renyi (or benevolence and righteousness) as the origins of Confucianists' self-identity. Such a composite form of the constitutive goods is also used to bolster the legitimacy and authority of the Zhou system of ethics as it confronts changing historical challenges such as the loss of values and political disorder. This author also points out that shenqidu – as a vital component of the constitutive goods or lixue discourse – became a re-interpretative discourse for Zhou cultural traditions. The shenqidu empowers the subject in its quest to detect "ethical origins" and intrinsically engenders a deep spiritual motor and lofty passion that enforces the Confucianists' disciplined path to achieving the moral obligation of knowing the heavens (zhitian) and self-prescribed political mandate, without compromises or deviations. In sum, the usages concerning the shenqidu observable in the six selected texts together reflect a common cultural and epistemological background: the political and cultural traditions of the Zhou Dynasty. The key of the aphorism is in the remonstrance of the junzi to perceive the existence of a heavenly destiny that would lead to his pursuit to zhitian, only that different generations, magistral traditions, and individual thought processes would eventually evolve into different lixue discourses. This research carried out a direct survey of six shendu texts in the Pre-Qin Confucianist tradition and examined the meaning and expressions of the phrase shenqidu in these specific texts. This research hopes to explore different aspects of one key topic in Pre-Qin Confucianist thought from a history of thought perspective and the lixue framework.